Die Agronauten - research for sustainable regional agriculture
Who we are
DIE AGRONAUTEN is a new non-profit research society for sustainable regional agriculture. We are based in south-west Germany. The motivation for our work lies in: respect for the work of farmers as land stewards and food providers, the advancement of alternative economic paradigms, the potential of regional value-added cycles and the promotion of a new societal discourse on food and agriculture. Inspiration for the founding of DIE AGRONAUTEN was also the obvious lack of practical research investigating innovative forms of land-use and communicating results of the research outside of academic circles. The members of DIE AGRONAUTEN come from different backgrounds; farmers, project developers to sociologists, geographers and economists.
For DIE AGRONAUTEN the premise holds, that agriculture has an importance beyond direct food production and that social and ecological aspects have to be integrated into any (e)valuation. Furthermore, the discourse on the future of agriculture should be more embedded in society. Therefore innovative methods of research are used and the results of the studies are presented to the wider public. The regional perspective is understood as the most suitable level of investigation and communication. DIE AGRONAUTEN have an integrative, interdisciplinary and participatory approach according to the following essential criteria:
Economic
How is added value created and distributed? Does it stay in the region? Does agriculture provides jobs? What is the real value and cost of agriculture?
Social
How do agricultural systems affect the number of farmers and the quality of their work? How does agriculture add to life quality of the regional population? Can the food production feed the population
Ecologic
How can agriculture be undertaken whilst minimising environmental degradation and instead positively shaping a healthy, aesthetic and (bio)diverse landscape ecology? Is agriculture equipped for ecologic crises?
Context
In Germany and Europe-wide, it is agriculture which is industrial, capital intensive, market-oriented, specialised, resource intensive with high input of water, fertilizer and pesticide and long transport routes, that has dominated and been favoured by policy makers. On the one hand this enables the consumer to have cheap and abundant food and provides especially the processing and retail companies with high profits. On the other hand there is evidence from many studies that this form of agriculture entails social, ecological and regional-economic problems (see e.g. European Environment Agency, 2010[1] on the impact of intense agriculture on biodiversity and soils, Ecologic, 2010[2] on the role of conventional agriculture for the aims of the EU water framework directive, Lead and FAO[3], 2006 on environmental degradation through intensive animal husbandry). As characteristic peasant farming disappears, regions lose younger inhabitants because farming is no more an interesting option, young farmers face difficulties in accessing land and ecosystems are degraded. At the same time there are health problems in Europe caused by unbalanced diets and resource intense transport logistics that waste circa 30% of food production (see FAO, 2011[4]). The free global food market (e.g. promoted by CAP policies) forces small (southern) farmers to compete with huge agro industries further hindering their own agricultural development.
The extreme changes in agriculture in Europe since the end of World War II and especially the negative implications of the „green revolution“ have, since the 1970s, inspired farmers and consumers to develop alternative agricultural concepts or to re-evoke traditional concepts: e.g. the sustainable multifunctional farm, direct producer-consumer relations (like Community Supported Agriculture), organic farming, social and pedagogic farming, permaculture and urban gardening. These ideas require increased accompanying research if they are to get out of their niche and evoke a paradigm change.
What we do
DIE AGRONAUTEN conduct research into the area of sustainable regional agriculture. We are interested in exchanging and networking with all agents and are active in Germany, Europe and have the potential to work world-wide. It is a high priority that the results of our research form part of a societal discourse.
The current working issues of DIE AGRONAUTEN:
- Research on social, ecologic and economic sustainability indicators to measure, valuate and communicate sustainable enterprise performance
- Projects to discuss the future of agriculture with students in school
- Scrutiny of regional added-value chains with the case study Regionalwert AG
- Strategies for surplus value creation and regional value-added
- Research on Eco Branding and communication strategies
- Investigation of alternatives for the reform of the EU Common Agricultural Policy
- Publication of position papers and scientific analysis
- DIE AGRONAUTEN are part of the European working group on „Access to Land“ and the ARC process for the EU CAP reform
last edit: October 2011